We analyze safety and training lessons from the leadership-themed October issue of School Transportation News, the question of seatbelts in two scary school bus rollovers in Texas and Indiana, a child dragged by school bus loading doors in New York, and a driver and aide arrested for spraying disinfectant on a student with special needs.
A mother holds hands with her son on a swing set. At least seven states have passed laws making equally shared parenting time the legal default in child custody cases.
(Photo by Troy Bennett for Maine Morning Star)
A growing number of states are making an equal split between parents the default child custody option in divorce cases.
Louisiana and Mississippi this year joined at least five other states that have adopted the so-called 50-50 standard — four of them since 2021, as more legislators rework divorce-related laws that remained mostly unchanged for years.
The 50-50 custody issue does not break down cleanly along partisan lines: The Mississippi bill was sponsored by Republicans, the Louisiana legislation by Democrats. Both states’ laws explicitly codify a custody guideline that many courts in other states follow.
Supporters say a formal 50-50 custody standard makes divorce proceedings more equitable for fathers — who historically have been awarded less custody time than mothers — and encourages them to maintain an active role in their children’s lives.
And it can reduce friction between separating parents by signaling they’re both starting the custody process on an equal playing field, said Don Hubin, board chair of the National Parents Organization, an advocacy group that has pushed for more states to adopt legal presumptions of shared parenting.
Without that presumption, Hubin said, one or both parents may feel like they have to paint each other in a bad light in order to ‘win’ more time with their children.
“It’s not just about the practice of shared parenting, but about the law signaling to parents that this is going to be the outcome unless something special is going on in your case,” he said. “It reduces the anxiety of the parents, which reduces the conflict between the parents.”
But critics say the standard might harm vulnerable women and children by making it more likely that children must spend time with a parent who isn’t safe. They fear that for women in abusive marriages, the knowledge they would have to cede 50% of their child’s time to an unsafe parent could push them to remain in a marriage just to protect their children.
Kimberly Rummage, who lives in Kentucky, calls her state’s 50-50 custody standard “absolutely diabolical.” She’s had a lengthy battle in court with her ex-husband over custody of their child.
“I think that parents should have to prove why they get that 50-50,” she said. “You should have to show what you’ve done in that child’s life, what you know about that child, how you’ve participated and supported that child.”
Some critics also argue that the 50-50 standard doesn’t account for the needs of children at different ages. Mississippi state Rep. Dana McLean, a Republican, warned her colleagues the state’s new law could harm breastfeeding infants who need to spend most of their time with their mothers during their first months of life.
Mississippi’s new law requires family courts to use equally-shared parenting time as the default in custody cases. Parents seeking more time must present evidence showing why a 50-50 split isn’t in their child’s best interest. It also changes how child support is calculated: The new formula for 50-50 custody can lower child support payments for the parent with the lower income.
Louisiana’s new law says child custody “shall” be divided equally, rather than “should,” which was the language under the previous law.
In both states, as in others that have adopted the 50-50 standard, a judge can override the rule if the court finds credible evidence for awarding more time to one parent.
But in Mississippi, several judges spoke against the bill before it passed, saying the old system — in which custody was awarded on a case-by-case basis using a specific set of factors — was the most fair.
Proponents of 50-50 laws say one positive side effect is that they could save some marriages. In Kentucky, the state’s divorce rate dropped 25% between 2016 and 2023, compared with an 18% decline nationwide.
But Krista Westrick-Payne, one of the researchers who studied the rates, told Stateline it’s impossible to tie Kentucky’s drop directly to the state’s 2018 50-50 custody law because too many other factors in that timeframe influenced it.
“There’s no one cause, no one single driver for these rates,” said Westrick-Payne, who is the assistant director of the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University in Kentucky.
The data shows that factors like state laws or local economic conditions tend to have a minimal effect on whether a couple divorces, she said.
“The more significant things that affect whether or not a couple decides to divorce have much more to do with their relationship and their personal situation.”
Westrick-Payne said she believes divorce and custody-related law should be crafted with the effects on individuals and families in mind, rather than as a way to affect widescale, population-level changes.
“When it comes to something like divorce, something that’s so personal, I think the focus needs to be more on the individuals going through it,” she said, “as opposed to some big policy to affect just whether somebody divorces or not.”
A growing effort
Hubin expects to see more states moving to codify the equal custody presumption in their laws in the coming years, as parenting norms change and more households become dual income. Fathers have taken on more caregiving responsibilities than a generation ago, he said.
“Fathers who’ve been involved with their kids, they’re not happy with being consigned to an ‘every other weekend’ visitor in their kids’ lives,” he said.
Nationally, mothers of children under 6 spend about seven and a half hours a day with their children, compared to a little over five hours for fathers, according to the latest available data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The time gap shrinks as kids get older: Mothers spend 3.8 hours a day with their teens and fathers spend about 3 hours.
Earlier this year, a 50-50 custody bill in Oklahoma, sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats, sailed through the House but died on the Senate floor. Similar bills have been proposed in Alabama, Idaho, Indiana and North Carolina.
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Missouri Republican state Rep. Cecelie Williams, flanked by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe and Democratic state Rep. Raychel Proudie, speaks in April about legislation that clarifies the right to divorce while pregnant. In recent decades, most of the states that have tweaked their divorce laws have made it easier, not harder, to get one. But that may be changing. (Photo by Steph Quinn/Missouri Independent)
Cerina Fairfax, a Virginia dentist and mother of two, spent nearly two years living in the same house as her husband while she was trying to divorce him.
Virginia state law required couples with children, like the Fairfaxes, to wait a year before being allowed to file for divorce. Cerina’s husband, former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, had also tried different legal tactics to prolong the process.
In March of this year, a judge granted Cerina sole custody of their children and ordered Justin to move out.
A few weeks later, with just days left before his move-out deadline, Justin fatally shot Cerina and then himself, police say, while their two teens were also in the house.
The tragedy focused national attention on state divorce laws, which have remained mostly static since 2010, when New York became the last state to allow no-fault divorce. In the years since, most of the states that have tweaked their divorce laws have made it easier, not harder, to get one. Virginia, for example, relaxed some of its requirements just days before Cerina Fairfax’s death.
Now that could be changing.
In recent years, more conservatives have turned to divorce as a “family values” talking point, with some pushing to make it harder for couples to divorce. By doing so, they’ve relaunched a national conversation that would have been nearly unthinkable just a few years ago.
In 1969, California became the first state to allow no-fault divorce, which allows one member of a couple to file for divorce without proving that the other person engaged in wrongdoing such as adultery, abuse or abandonment. No-fault divorce emerged from the women’s rights movement of that era, promising women greater freedom to escape from unhappy or abusive marriages.
But the loss of that freedom suddenly seems more plausible, particularly for those whose confidence in federal protections for women’s rights was shattered after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022. And as state lawmakers ramp up restrictions around birth control, fertility treatments and pregnancy loss, new limits on divorce seem less far-fetched.
“What’s different now is that it’s actually gaining some traction,” said Marcia Zug, a family law professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law whose work focuses on the legal history of marriage. “Simply the idea that we’re talking about it seriously, that it’s part of some Republican party platforms, that it’s not just laughed out of the room.
“Even if we’re not anywhere near eliminating it, that is the major change.”
Earlier this year, for example, an Iowa Senate subcommittee approved a bill that would allow couples to opt out of no-fault divorce when they’re registering for marriage licenses.
“In the last generation, we have seen the chaos of — the circus of — pure no-fault divorce, (and) the ugliness of divorce and the breakdown of marriage,” Iowa state Sen. Jesse Green, a Republican, told his colleagues during a February hearing on his bill, which later died in committee.
“A lot of people are not getting married anymore because maybe, in some cases, they feel the lack of support and accountability with our law,” he said.
In Texas and Nebraska, the official state GOP platforms call for ending or limiting no-fault divorce. Other state Republican parties, such as in Louisiana, have considered similar party planks.
Republican lawmakers in states including South Carolina and South Dakota have filed bills to limit no-fault divorce or make the process harder.
Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers, a Republican and pastor, filed a bill in 2024 to abolish no-fault divorce, after saying he wanted to see public shaming for those who cause divorce.
At the same time, some prominent social media influencers have been using their platforms to call for streamlining divorce laws.
Hadley Vlahos, a Mississippi registered nurse with 2.2 million followers on TikTok, used her platform this summer to talk about her three-year-long divorce, which included an 11-day trial and hundreds of court filings. She has called for changes to Mississippi’s divorce law, one of only two in the country that doesn’t allow a no-fault divorce if one spouse objects. Her petition to change state law has more than 30,000 signatures.
Jen Hamilton, a nurse and content creator North Carolina who has 7.2 million followers across TikTok and Instagram as well as a bestselling book, called for changes to the divorce laws in her state after separating from her husband.
She recently appeared at a fundraiser with North Carolina state Sen. Woodson Bradley, a Democrat who co-sponsored a bill that would shorten the required separation period before divorce in certain circumstances. That bill remains in committee.
Hamilton’s goal, she told her followers, “is to do everything that I can to get North Carolina law changed to protect women — and some men — from these archaic, paternalistic laws that keep people trapped in marriages that are either unhealthy or dangerous.”
A paradox
Divorce has been declining in the U.S. for more than 40 years.
Four of the five states with the highest divorce rates — Oklahoma, Nevada, Mississippi, Wyoming and Alabama, as of the most recently available data — are Republican led; Nevada has a Republican governor but a Democratic-controlled state legislature.
But state laws aren’t an effective way to raise or lower the number of divorces, said Krista Westrick-Payne, a marriage and divorce researcher and assistant director at the National Center for Family & Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University.
“The more significant things that affect whether or not a couple decides to divorce has much more to do with their relationship and their personal situation,” Westrick-Payne said.
Religious areas tend to see higher divorce rates, according to her research. So do areas that are more politically conservative.
“That feels like a paradox,” she said. But those areas generally see more people marrying at younger ages — one of the biggest predictors of divorce.
“So it’s not to say religious people are divorce prone; it’s just they have all these other risk factors, and underlying population dynamics that affect this.
“People like to get on social media and make these overarching statements, flattening a very complex issue,” she said. “And I don’t think that serves anyone very well.”
The most dangerous time
The Iowa proposal to allow couples to opt out of no-fault divorce faced strong opposition from domestic violence advocates, who said such laws especially burden people fleeing domestic violence — who are overwhelmingly women — and can leave them stuck in a dangerous marriage while they try to prove to a court that they’re being abused.
“For someone experiencing domestic violence, leaving is already incredibly complicated, and for a lot of survivors, it is the most dangerous time,” said Lindsay Pingel, director of community engagement at the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, which represents 25 victim service provider organizations across the state.
Then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan, himself divorced, signed the law that made his state the first to allow no-fault divorce. Prior to that, a person trying to divorce had to prove in court that his or her spouse did something wrong. But such things are difficult to prove in court, and subject to a judge’s interpretation.
“We know that domestic violence doesn’t always come with the kind of documentation that someone who’s never experienced an unhealthy relationship might expect,” Pingel said. “There might not be a police report, or medical records, photographs or witnesses.”
Most survivors of domestic violence don’t talk about it with others until they’ve decided to leave, she said. And many don’t feel safe involving authorities in a situation that could make it more dangerous.
“We have to stop asking why survivors continue to stay in unhealthy relationships when we continue to put barriers in place that prohibit them from leaving.”
Women who talked to Stateline about their divorces described years-long court battles with convoluted rules, fraught custody arrangements and uneven protections in cases of abuse.
Some states require months- or years-long waiting periods where a couple must be separated before they can file for divorce. At least three states — Arkansas, Arizona and Louisiana — allow so-called “covenant marriage,” a legally binding agreement that comes with additional requirements and is harder to end through divorce. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is from Louisiana, is in a covenant marriage with wife Kelly.
Recently, some states have made it easier for couples to divorce. Maryland, for example, moved to a purely no-fault divorce process in 2023.
Virginia’s new divorce law includes some narrow changes, including an option for speeding up the divorce process. It also created a legislative work group to study whether the state should eliminate fault-based divorce entirely.
And in Missouri, Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe in April signed a new law clarifying that pregnancy can’t prevent a divorce from being finalized.
Pingel, of the Iowa domestic violence coalition, said supporting healthy marriages and protecting vulnerable people from dangerous marriages aren’t competing goals.
“Children benefit from safety and stability,” she said. “and keeping someone legally tied to a person who is causing harm doesn’t necessarily create a healthier family.”
This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Wisconsin Examiner, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
A Flock camera outside of Washington Park in Milwaukee, WI. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Milwaukee is tightening the leash around Flock automatic license plate reader cameras, with elected leaders calling for more oversight and restrictions as investigations into misuse by officers continue.
Flock cameras utilize AI-powered technology to identify vehicles and license plates that pass within their view on roadways. The data is stored for several weeks or longer, allowing law enforcement officers from anywhere across the country to search for specific vehicles as long as their agency has a contract with Flock.
An analysis by the Wisconsin Examiner found that at least 221 Wisconsin law enforcement agencies searched the Flock network during the first half of 2025, and that officers often used vague search terms to query the system. That same year, the multi-billion dollar Flock Safety company spent $102,000 lobbying the state government for grants to allow law enforcement agencies to acquire license plate reader cameras, though the Republican-backed bills were unsuccessful.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
On Tuesday, a directive went out from the office of Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley to county departments and the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office to limit Flock-related operations on county property, and to work towards adopting new transparency and accountability standards.
“Public safety partners should have the right tools to keep Milwaukee County safe, but unchecked surveillance isn’t the answer,” said Crowley, who is running against Republican Tom Tiffany to become Wisconsin’s next governor, in a statement. “We have seen what can happen when this technology operates without clear rules, transparency and accountability. Protecting our residents’ privacy and maintaining the public’s trust is a responsibility I take seriously. That is why I am directing all County departments to limit the usage of all Flock camera systems and establish safeguards proactively, before a breach of public trust can occur.”
Crowley is calling on the Office of Corporation Counsel and the Information Management Services Division to evaluate current policies governing the use of any surveillance tech and to develop binding standards for its use. The standards will determine how surveillance technology can be used, how long data is kept, who can access that data and why, and limit when data is shared with an emphasis on prohibiting use for federal immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant, a county press release stated. These standards would also establish independent audits and enforceable consequences when surveillance technology is misused.
Crowley is also calling on other local elected leaders to look closely at their own use of Flock cameras and adopt similar policies. Ultimately, these efforts could result in the adoption of a consistent standard across the county for Flock.
In April Tiffany said he had never heard of Flock cameras, when he was asked about controversy around their use. “I’m going to sound ignorant on this, what are Flock cameras?” Tiffany said during a virtual question-and-answer session.
More recently, Tiffany said that “government should not be building an AI surveillance network that tracks law-abiding Wisconsinites everywhere they drive.” Tiffany said that he would pause state funding for Flock and create a task force to establish stronger protections, penalties for misuse, limits on data sharing, and safeguards against foreign adversaries. Tiffany criticized Crowley for “repeatedly” seeking to install “more red-light cameras, speed cameras, and massive funding increases for automated license plate readers.”
Tom Tiffany (right) and David Crowley (left). (Photos by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
Police departments often acquire Flock cameras through non-competitive sole source contracts which bypass a public bidding process, keeping local councils and residents from even knowing that the technology has been acquired.
The changes in Milwaukee County come after the Milwaukee Police Department announced on Monday that it will be further restricting its Flock network. In a Monday press release the department said that it “supports the use of technology to assist in solving crimes that cause harm to our community,” and that new technology can help solve cases more quickly than traditional methods for investigations.
“With that, we recognize that the use of such technology, like Flock technology, comes with great responsibility,” the department said in the press release. “These tools must always be used to prevent and reduce harm, not create more.” The department acknowledged the growing discontent and angst over Flock technology in the community, saying that “we do not dismiss these opinions.” The department went on to say that it “acknowledges the harm that former department members have caused that has damaged the trust we work so hard to build” and that it “acknowledges the human error that comes with the use of technology” and that the department is “working tirelessly to reduce error as much as we can.”
The Milwaukee police announced that access to Flock has been restricted to supervisors only, and that the department will no longer share its Flock data with neighboring jurisdictions. Furthermore, the cameras may only be used for “Part I crimes” such as homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault including non-fatal shootings, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson, human trafficking, as well as for critically missing people and investigating drug trafficking organizations.
Earlier this year, the department began revamping its auditing procedures and limited the number of officers with access to Flock cameras to an “as needed basis,” risk manager James Lewis told the Examiner in June.
“MPD will continue to robustly audit its Flock systems,” the department’s Monday press release reads. “We are better together!”
A Milwaukee police squad in front of the Municipal Court downtown. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
The changes were followed on Tuesday by a statement from Mayor Cavalier Johnson that while technology can help law enforcement, “it is essential that we recognize the limitations and dangers associated with these tools.” Johnson added that “I recognize the benefits of the Flock cameras system.” He said that “on multiple occasions this tool has located critical missing persons and helped apprehend violent criminals in Milwaukee. The technology has also been misused in several notable instances, both locally and nationally, compromising the rights of individuals.”
Several of those cases played out in Milwaukee and elsewhere in Wisconsin. Josue Ayala of Milwaukee, Cristian Morales of Menasha, and Frank McGrath of Kenosha County were all charged with either misdemeanor or felony misconduct in public office after using Flock to surveil their current or former romantic partners. Ayala was given a year of probation and avoided incarceration, whereas Morales was sentenced to six months in jail and three years of probation while avoiding prison time. McGrath’s case is still ongoing.
In July, Tehrangi Chapman, a Milwaukee police internal affairs detective who was involved in investigating Ayala’s misuse of Flock, was also charged with using the cameras and car-mounted GPS devices to keep tabs on someone who he’d surveilled since 2019, before Flock even arrived in Milwaukee. Chapman has been charged with felonies, and his case is still ongoing. On Aug. 26, Chapman pled not guilty, and is expected back in court for a scheduling conference on Oct. 7, according to online court records.
Each of the officers who’ve been found to have abused their access to Flock used terms like “suspicious” or “investigation” to search the Flock network, which were common terms found in the Examiner’s 2025 analysis. Other cases have also emerged, such as that of a man who is now suing the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department after a deputy searched him in Flock following a traffic stop, for which the man sought to file a complaint against the deputy.
A Flock camera outside of Washington Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
As misconduct cases have emerged, communities across the state have opted to drop their Flock cameras including Kaukauna, Sturgeon Bay, Verona, Appleton, Oshkosh, Dane County and Stoughton.
In Oshkosh, the request to cancel the Flock contract actually came from the police chief, who told local elected officials that representatives of the multi-billion dollar Flock Safety company had misled him on whether the cameras were able to develop heatmaps depicting a vehicle’s movement patterns.
Elsewhere, community members have packed public meetings to tell local officials that they don’t want to be placed under perpetual surveillance, expressing fears about how the cameras could be misused by both local and federal law enforcement. Police leaders have had mixed responses to the concerns from residents. The police chief in Green Bay has opted to keep the cameras, citing their usefulness in solving violent crime while also acknowledging that steps need to be taken to protect people’s privacy, while a chief in the small city of Chetek threatened to do background checks on residents who spoke against the cameras in a public meeting.
Exactly how to handle the cameras is still a question local and national leaders are trying to answer. In August, President Donald Trump said that the cameras have “pros and cons” and that “it’s being studied right now, we’ll have an answer soon as to our views on it.” When asked whether he’d consider banning Flock cameras statewide, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers said, “I don’t know what the solution is, but I think there’s people all across our country that’s talking about it.” Evers said he recently talked with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz about Flock cameras. “Whether that [banning the cameras] is the answer, all’s I know is that we need to have an answer.”
Editor’s note: This story contains topics of domestic violence and abuse.
When Kimberly Johnson mustered the courage to leave her abuser, she hoped the Christine Ann shelter in Winnebago County would be a refuge.
Johnson said she didn’t leave her abuser when he went to prison for beating her, or when she got evicted because of the damage he and his friends caused to her home. It took her years to get away, and when she did, there was only one place she thought to go.
What she didn’t expect was to be turned away.
Johnson is one of several domestic abuse survivors who, after what they describe as bad experiences with the Oshkosh shelter, left negative online reviews. Their stories raise questions about where survivors can turn when a shelter of last resort shuts them out.
Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services Incorporated, or CADASI for short, has long stood as a community pillar for domestic violence victims in Winnebago County.
The center was founded in 1984 and renamed in 1991 after Christine Ann Schambow, who was murdered by her husband. That same year it moved to Algoma Boulevard near its current location a few blocks from the Fox River. In 2024, the shelter relocated again to a new 64-bed facility that provides legal and mental health services and up to two years of housing support.
When Johnson first arrived in 2024, she was assigned to an apartment with other women. She found a job as a cook at UW-Oshkosh and began to gain back some of her confidence.
But three days after she started working, she received a week’s notice to vacate.
Johnson asked her counselor if she could stay until she received her first paycheck because she had nowhere to go. She recalled being told, “Well, we’re not a homeless shelter, (and) we feel that’s why you’re here, because you’re homeless.”
About two days later, after Johnson had asked her counselor how to file a grievance and discussed the situation with her roommate, who was also being kicked out, she heard a knock at her door. Her counselor, another shelter employee and two police officers were there.
Johnson said they accused her of threatening to “beat up” a CADASI staff member and told her she had 10 minutes to pack all her things before they would be removed.
Johnson recalled spending several days sleeping outside the Salvation Army in the freezing cold, before eventually being accepted into a homeless shelter. She said if she had not gotten into that shelter when she did, she would have gone back to her abuser.
Wisconsin Watch spoke with several former CADASI clients and domestic abuse survivors who reported being turned away, along with statewide advocates and government officials, about accountability for domestic violence agencies serving survivors’ needs.
CADASI Executive Director Carly Hirsch said in an email that the organization is unable to respond to questions from Wisconsin Watch, but wrote in a statement that CADASI is “committed to empowering individuals and families, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or ability … by providing education, promoting safety, and offering compassionate support (while) always honoring the confidentiality of those we serve.”
Former clients speak out
On websites like Charity Navigator and Indeed, CADASI’s shelter has overwhelmingly positive reviews for financial openness and working conditions.
But out of the 62 service reviews for the shelter on Google, 17 are negative, and those reviews have overwhelmingly more likes than the positive ones. CADASI’s corporate office, which is listed separately online from the shelter, has only one review, which is negative.
Wisconsin Watch confirmed the negative reviews with names attached were all from real people located in or near Winnebago County at the time. Among CADASI’s online reviews, three other women said the organization had kicked them out.
The Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services Inc. (CADASI) facility, photographed Oct. 28, 2025, in Oshkosh, Wis., has received several negative online reviews over the years. A Wisconsin Watch investigation tried to understand why. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Jennifer, a single mother of three, said she sought support from CADASI sometime between 2011 and 2015 for an emotionally, financially and sexually abusive relationship. Jennifer, who wished to be identified by her first name, was often living in her car at the time.
She initially found the center’s programming to be helpful. She took a choice and consequences class with a former advocate whom she described as “awesome.”
“She would help me out when I was kicked out and didn’t have a job, but my kids needed something like a Halloween costume. She’d give me gift cards,” Jennifer recalled.
After that advocate left the center, however, Jennifer said things took a drastic turn. She got into an argument with her abuser, who told her he had contacted a legal advocate at the shelter. CADASI then abruptly canceled her services, refusing to speak with her or provide alternative resources because staff claimed a conflict of interest.
“Christine Ann has the right to decide who they can allow services or what a conflict of interest is,” she recalled the advocate telling her after repeated phone calls asking for an explanation.
Multiple sources said CADASI used the phrase “conflict of interest” when refusing or withdrawing services, though it does not openly define this term. The nonprofit organization’s GuideStar profile says it has a conflict-of-interest policy, but it’s not publicly available on its website.
The United States Office for Victims of Crime says that “when a conflict arises between a victim’s interests and those of the victim assistance provider or program, the provider should verbally disclose the situation to the victim, refer the victim to an alternate provider, and/or consult a professional regarding appropriate resolution of the conflict.”
The experience ended up following Jennifer, who went back to her abuser. When she attempted to leave him again, she said Harbor House in Appleton, a CADASI partner, refused to serve her.
She also said when she was hired for a job at Garage for Good in Neenah — a low-cost auto repair garage opened by CADASI and Harbor House for domestic abuse survivors that closed in 2020 — the job offer was rescinded the morning she was supposed to start working.
“Not only would they not help me, but now I can’t even have a job,” Jennifer said. “I finally got a job, and it was going to be good and I’ll make decent money so I’d be able to support myself, and I don’t have to go back. … And then the rug was just pulled out from under me.”
Jennifer didn’t talk to anyone about her experience with CADASI for a long time because she thought “no one cared.”
“The worst part about that was then when I left (my abuser) finally, permanently, I needed help, and I knew I couldn’t go to the Christine Ann center,” Jennifer said.
Rejected survivors
CADASI is transparent about its inability to help all survivors in its community due to limited space — a nationwide problem as domestic violence shelters face funding cuts and uncertain futures.
Advocates with Wise Women Gathering Place, a Green Bay nonprofit that provides culturally specific services to Native American victims of violence, told Wisconsin Watch that dozens of their clients have been turned away or abruptly kicked out of shelters across the state, particularly in the last few years.
CADASI’s website notes that before the shelter moved and expanded from 37 to 64 beds in 2024, it turned away about 50 survivors annually for capacity reasons. But Johnson questioned that claim, saying her unit had five empty beds prior to her eviction. She said she saw two empty apartments on her floor and empty apartments throughout the third floor.
Donna Prost said she was fleeing abuse and living in her car when CADASI turned her away in 2021. She said the shelter appeared mostly empty each time she visited, even though staff told her there was no room for her.
CADASI declined Wisconsin Watch’s request for data on its occupancy rates, citing “the safety and confidentiality of (its) current and former clients,” though the shelter reports biannual point in time occupancy numbers to Wisconsin Balance of State Continuum of Care, which tracks homelessness.
Data from 2014 to 2025 shows CADASI has rarely been near capacity during the two nights each year the homeless advocacy organization recorded its occupancy rates. In half of the counts, occupancy rates were less than 50%, dipping as low as 13.5% in July 2022. The shelter has not exceeded 100% capacity during the counts since 2014.
A Wisconsin Balance of State Continuum of Care spokesperson told Wisconsin Watch a shelter might not appear full if it houses a family in a single unit with more beds than there are family members.
The Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services Inc. (CADASI) facility in Oshkosh has long been a pillar of the community. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
CADASI’s 2024 tax form, known as a 990, says the shelter provides families with private rooms, while single adults of the same gender may share rooms. The form also says the shelter does not limit how long clients can stay, though its website says housing is offered for up to two years.
Organization leaders did not respond to requests for clarification about the homeless counts and their bed capacity.
After being turned away from CADASI, Prost returned to her abuser. “I had nowhere to go. I was selling my home at the time (and) ended up backing out of that,” she said.
She approached CADASI again in 2023 for help filing a restraining order due to an escalation in the abuse. She said CADASI was ultimately unhelpful — despite Winnebago County instructing people to contact CADASI for help with restraining orders. Prost ultimately completed her restraining order with help from the local library.
“I would probably have been killed somewhere along the line (without it),” Prost said. “I wouldn’t say (CADASI) was mean or anything like that … but both times they just didn’t want to be bothered.”
Carl, a 40-year-old Wisconsin military veteran who asked to be identified by his middle name because he feared retribution and wanted to protect his coparenting relationship, said a social worker friend encouraged him to call CADASI in 2018 for therapy resources after he showed her a video of his ex-wife verbally abusing him. He was hesitant to do so, half-convinced that he just had a “crazy ex.”
When he called the organization’s 24-hour helpline, Carl said it took time to convince the advocate on the other end that he wasn’t an abusive husband seeking help to stop abusing. Instead, he said, he wanted someone with whom to talk through his experiences.
“I finally made her realize that, in my mind, I was a victim, and the response that I got will stick with me forever. She laughed,” he recalled. “She laughed at me and said that this was a women’s shelter. That they existed to protect women from people like me. (She said) men are not victims, and that I should just go check out the homeless shelter or something.”
Carl’s account was echoed by an anonymous online reviewer who said he filed a complaint with the shelter.
The man said staff told him by phone he could stay after his girlfriend was arrested for domestic violence, but staff turned him away when he arrived because his presence would be a “conflict of interest” and that “women felt scared having a male stay there.”
Studies show as many as 32% of Wisconsin men experience intimate partner violence, rape or stalking. CADASI’s websites and brochures say it serves “people of all backgrounds, genders, ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and abilities.”
CADASI receives annual government funding from the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF), the state Department of Justice (DOJ), Winnebago County Health and Human Services, the cities of Oshkosh and Neenah’s Community Development Block Grants and FEMA-EFSP. State law prohibits organizations that receive state funding from discriminating.
Oversight and redress
Some of the concerns raised about CADASI relate to a lack of transparency surrounding grievance and nondiscrimination procedures for clients.
CADASI’s website says it encourages clients to report discrimination “promptly” after it occurs. According to GuideStar, a clearinghouse for nonprofit information, the organization “aim(s) to collect feedback from as many people (they) serve as possible” and makes additional efforts to collect feedback from “marginalized or under-represented people.”
The profile also says the organization has difficulty getting people to respond to requests for feedback because it lacks technology to “collect and aggregate feedback efficiently.” It says CADASI staff “find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time.”
CADASI does not specify what its procedure is for collecting feedback, nor for addressing discrimination complaints or client grievances. CADASI declined to comment when asked by Wisconsin Watch.
Johnson said that when she asked an advocate how to file a grievance report two days before being kicked out, the advocate refused to explain the process. She still wants to officially report her shelter experience, but like many survivors in similar circumstances, has “no clue” where or how to do so.
A Wisconsin DCF spokesperson told Wisconsin Watch that domestic violence agencies receiving DCF grant funds are contractually obligated to have a grievance process for staff and clients. If a client has completed the program’s complaint/grievance process and does not feel that the complaint has been resolved, the person can submit a complaint to DCF’s general complaint form. DCF lacks a complaint process or records database specific to domestic violence shelters.
Should DCF identify “instances of concern or non-compliance” with grant requirements for a shelter, DCF said the program agency must “take immediate corrective action” or work with DCF on a Corrective Action Plan in serious cases. If the shelter doesn’t comply with the plan requirements, DCF said it may terminate the grant agreement.
Responding to a Wisconsin Watch records request, DCF said it received a complaint about CADASI in 2019. The complainant accused the organization of sharing her address with her abuser, denying her shelter due to medical needs and not preparing her for her court hearing or helping her with transportation.
Currently, all DCF-funded shelters must provide temporary housing and food, educational arrangements for school-age children, emergency transportation, a 24-hour crisis line and an intake process for clients.
In response to the complaint, a DCF spokesperson said the agency had a conversation with CADASI and shared the results of the conversation with the complainant. The agency was “satisfied” with the outcome of the conversations, the spokesperson said without providing more detail.
An information flyer for Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services is posted in the restroom at New Moon Cafe on Oct. 28, 2025, in Oshkosh, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, a statewide coalition that works to “educate shelter and program volunteers and advocates, law enforcement, legislators, and community members to provide safety and support to survivors,” also has a multistep process for approaching grievances, communications director Elise Buchbinder told Wisconsin Watch.
When a client or survivor reaches out to End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin about a negative experience with a local agency, the coalition first tries to address the issue on a program level. The coalition may contact the agency informally to inquire about any problems, offer gaps in support and work alongside the agency to address survivor concerns.
The second step, Buchbinder said, is to bring the problem to the organization’s board members. The board is typically responsible for developing the policy, procedures and regulations of an agency, evaluating its programs’ performance and addressing client complaints.
Two former CADASI board members declined to comment for this story, and others did not respond to requests from Wisconsin Watch.
Finally, if End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin receives many complaints about a shelter or agency, or if it is unable to address disputes locally, the coalition would contact the program’s funders and grant managers — including the DCF — as well as elected officials and the media.
Buchbinder declined to comment on whether End Domestic Abuse has received complaints about CADASI.
The final option for survivors seeking redress is to contact the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ), though its oversight also applies only to the shelters it funds, and even then is “limited” and “not regulatory” in nature.
When the DOJ receives a complaint about a domestic violence shelter, it first decides whether the complaint “relates to the terms and conditions of (its) grant” for that shelter. If it doesn’t, the DOJ either forwards it to an outside agency or returns it to the complainant.
“The DOJ generally does not have the authority to act on complaints regarding conduct that is not contemplated by the terms and conditions of the domestic violence shelter’s DOJ-administered grant program,” the agency said.
Discrimination complaints, for example, must be handled by the U.S. Department of Justice, but the Wisconsin DOJ typically assists complainants in submissions.
When the DOJ finds that a grant recipient violated program conditions, it will typically work with the shelter or affiliated statewide coalitions to “achieve compliance,” sometimes attaching special conditions to grants or reviewing and revising the shelter’s policies.
In severe cases, the DOJ says it may reject future funding requests from the organization.
Some advocates argue that there is too little oversight or accountability for domestic violence agencies across the state. Shelters across Wisconsin, particularly in Winnebago County and the Fox Valley, have accumulated negative online reviews over the years.
Wise Women Gathering Place advocate and Oneida Nation member Julia McLester said many clients have faced discrimination from domestic violence agencies, including in Winnebago County. Advocates have called the police on clients and referred them to psychiatrists for practicing cultural rituals, discouraging some survivors from working with non-Native advocates altogether.
Nationally, more than half (55%) of Native women have experienced physical violence from an intimate partner.
McLester has worked with the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault to create a racial inclusion checklist for domestic violence agencies, but the idea hasn’t gained traction.
“Mainstream agencies need to be learning and growing and being accountable to how they provide training, trauma-informed care training, diversity, equity, inclusion skills, and accountability, how to check our own implicit biases so that it’s not creating harm to people coming in the door,” McLester said.
The aftermath of abuse
Buchbinder attributes the struggles many survivors are facing with Wisconsin shelters and coalitions to a systemic lack of resources for the survivors and agencies, rather than any ill will by the organizations.
“Our communities will continue seeing individual cases of escalated crises at the local program level due to an overarching lack of survivors’ needs being met,” Buchbinder said. “When an advocate is forced to say ‘no’ to (survivors’) basic needs due to lack of adequate resourcing, further escalation of crisis is too often a tragic outcome.”
Wise Women Gathering Place communications person Brenda John, who is also a member of Oneida Nation, echoed that statement. “The people who work in these settings, they care about victims … their resources are stretched thin as well, so they’re doing the best they can with what they have.”
Nevertheless, they emphasized that institutional and societal responses to domestic abuse victims can inflict long-term trauma, such as feelings of shame and embarrassment that discourage survivors from seeking services.
Following her eviction from CADASI, Johnson said she lived in a motel before being forced to live in her car. Now 56 and living with her mother, she struggles to find employment and lacks many of the resources needed to pursue her dream of attending college.
“They were supposed to do everything they said in their ads,” Johnson said. “At that point I’m telling myself I am so broken, I don’t even know where to begin. And I need guidance, and I need help, and I’ve always been the type of person I will never ask anybody for anything. … I will not beg, you know? And that’s how they made me feel, like I had to beg for it.”
On the shores of Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wis., domestic violence survivor Kimberly Johnson speaks about her life and past experiences on Oct. 14, 2025. (Kara Counard for Wisconsin Watch)
Jennifer said she felt like CADASI “slapped me in the face and victim-shamed me” and was “destroyed” for years after her experience. She remembers weeping in her aunt’s backyard when she was moving herself and three children into her aunt’s two-bedroom apartment. She called the suicide crisis hotline “too many times to count.”
Though she managed to get a restraining order against her husband, Prost said that being turned away from CADASI made her life extremely stressful. The worry and fear keep her awake at night, even after her husband died in January 2025.
Carl said his CADASI experience was “shattering on a level (he) didn’t quite understand and wasn’t prepared to deal with.” Like Jennifer, he continues to coparent with his abuser without guidance.
Carl said a friend wanted him to go on a “warpath” against the shelter after hearing about his experience. But he advised against it. Carl doesn’t want the scrutiny and doubts anybody will believe him.
“Who are people going to believe?” he asked. “This one dude, or this shelter organization that has been active in the Fox Valley for who knows how long?”
Still, many of the people Wisconsin Watch spoke with are healing after saving themselves from their circumstances when no one else would.
They have gone to therapy, found jobs helping others and focused on building better lives for their children. By speaking up, they hope to raise awareness about how society treats abuse survivors and draw attention to the need for more empathy and transparency in the institutions that are supposed to help.
“I still have this dream in my head that I want to start my own shelter, get my own nationwide domestic abuse shelter going and not do this to women,” Johnson said. “It’s my life and my livelihood. How could you just disregard me like I’m less than a dog?”
Editor’s note: This story corrects the name of the local college in Oshkosh where Johnson worked as a cook.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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Dane County ended a four-year program that distributed pipes and smoking supplies to reduce overdose deaths and disease transmission among people who use drugs.
Public health officials said the program increased visits from people seeking overdose reversal medication, fentanyl test strips and other harm reduction resources.
County officials halted the program in March after questions arose about whether distributing pipes violated Wisconsin paraphernalia law.
People who relied on the free supplies say they may now buy pipes elsewhere, use makeshift devices or inject drugs they previously smoked.
Dane County has ended an initiative to prevent overdose deaths by giving out pipes.
Four years ago, public health officials started giving people pipes and other supplies to reduce health risks associated with smoking drugs.
The program was part of the department’s broader efforts to reduce harms of drug use. For decades, syringe service programs across the country have provided harm reduction supplies to people who inject drugs. Though controversial, these programs reduce hospitalizations and overdose deaths while increasing participation in drug treatment.
But in recent years people have increasingly smoked drugs rather than injecting them. Adapting to that trend, harm reduction providers, including Public Health Madison and Dane County, began offering smoking supplies.
The pipe handouts worked. More people visited health officials to receive overdose reversal medication and other resources to prevent drug-related illnesses and injuries.
But the program was likely illegal under Wisconsin law, which allows injection supplies, not smoking materials.
Staff stopped offering smoking supplies in March. Spokesperson Morgan Finke cited a need to re-evaluate the program after the risk of COVID-19 transmission from shared pipes sharply declined and federal guidance on harm reduction shifted.
The department still offers injection supplies and other harm reduction items not intended for smoking.
“While syringes are classified as disease prevention materials under state law, smoking supplies have less clear protections,” Finke wrote in an email to Wisconsin Watch.
Halting the distribution of smoking supplies is already having an impact.
People who previously received pipes from the health office said they will buy similar supplies at smoke shops and gas stations, use makeshift pipes made from foil and soda cans or inject drugs they would have smoked, according to records and interviews obtained by Wisconsin Watch.
Others said they would likely stop visiting public health altogether.
Why did health officials hand out pipes?
Wisconsin opioid overdose deaths hit a record high in 2022, topping 1,450.
Officials found more evidence of smoking than injecting at fatal overdose scenes across the U.S. in 2022, a shift from years prior, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although it still carries overdose risks, evidence shows smoking instead of injecting reduces the spread of diseases like hepatitis, HIV and bacterial infections and abscesses. It may also lower overdose risks. Regular access to new pipes can reduce how often people share pipes or use broken and unsafe materials, according to a national research study that included 2024 survey data from Public Health Madison and Dane County.
Public Health Madison and Dane County offered evidence-based resources to prevent disease and overdoses, including sterile needles, fentanyl test strips and overdose reversal medication. But the office primarily served people who inject drugs, the department’s medical director, Dr. Jonathan Temte, wrote in a 2022 letter explaining why the office would start ordering smoking supplies.
“People who use drugs by means other than injection have no reason to visit,” Temte wrote.
Temte is a family medicine physician and University of Wisconsin-Madison associate dean of public health and community engagement. He advises the health department on a limited basis.
When staff asked Temte to approve adding smoking supplies to the department’s syringe service programs, they told him Wisconsin law allowed it, Temte recalled. He focused on whether medical evidence supported the initiative.
Health research overwhelmingly supports harm reduction, he said.
Adding smoking supplies addressed two major issues: Health officials needed to get life-saving resources to people who smoked drugs. And without access to safer smoking supplies, people were more likely to share pipes or use materials that cause cuts, burns and infections.
Monthly visits jumped nearly 30% once department offices began regularly offering filters, mouthpieces and two kinds of pipes.
Even with increased visits, the department distributed 3.7% fewer syringes between 2021 and 2023.
But despite the public health benefits, Wisconsin paraphernalia laws criminalizes smoking materials.
A woman visited a public health office and asked for a pipe in early April. When she found the office no longer distributed them, she asked for syringes, according to emails obtained by Wisconsin Watch. Staff asked if she would inject the drugs she usually smokes. She said yes. Without a pipe she would dissolve powdered drugs in water and inject them.
Screenshot from a “Harm Reduction Saves Lives” pamphlet included in materials Public Health Madison and Dane County produced in response to a Wisconsin Watch public records request.
Screenshot from a “Harm Reduction Saves Lives” pamphlet included in materials Public Health Madison and Dane County produced in response to a Wisconsin Watch public records request.
Screenshot from a “Harm Reduction Saves Lives” pamphlet included in materials Public Health Madison and Dane County produced in response to a Wisconsin Watch public records request.
Screenshot from a “Harm Reduction Saves Lives” pamphlet included in materials Public Health Madison and Dane County produced in response to a Wisconsin Watch public records request.
Why did the program end?
The city-county agency was likely the state’s only syringe service provider that publicized pipes online, according to a 211 list of syringe service programs.
While reporting a feature highlighting the seemingly unique initiative, Wisconsin Watch emailed Madison City Attorney Michael Haas on March 23 to ask how the department could legally distribute pipes.
The email was forwarded to public health staff, records obtained by Wisconsin Watch show. The public health agency redacted correspondence related to the email, citing attorney client privilege.
The next day, a public health supervisor instructed a staff member to remove smoking supplies from an internal tracking system. By the end of the week the department’s website no longer mentioned safer smoking supplies.
Wisconsin’s paraphernalia law bans equipment used, designed or intended for inhaling a controlled substance. Possessing paraphernalia carries a penalty up to a $500 fine and 30 days in jail.
Dane County lowered local penalties for drug paraphernalia citations in 2023. County sheriffs and local police have continued to fine and charge people for possessing smoking materials similar to those health officials distributed.
Madison police cited paraphernalia possession in around 350 arrests in 2025, department records show.
“Public health programs must follow federal, state and local law,” Finke told Wisconsin Watch. “While we continue to evaluate disease transmissions within the community and evolving guidance from federal agencies, we have currently removed smoking supplies from our offerings.”
But the medical evidence supporting the service has not changed “one iota,” Temte said. “It’s just one more (example) of the politicization of public health.”
A pipe is shown. (Addie Costello / Wisconsin Watch)
The smoking supply rollback came as harm reduction lost support from federal leaders.
The Biden administration spent millions on harm reduction efforts but prohibited spending grant dollars on pipes after reporting on the potential distribution of safer smoking kits went viral and drew criticism.
The Trump administration announced in 2025 a “clear shift away from harm reduction and practices that facilitate illicit drug use and are incompatible with Federal laws.”
Federal health leaders wrote in April that federal dollars cannot be used to buy “drug paraphernalia or supplies that promote or facilitate drug use” including pipes, injection supplies and fentanyl test strips.
The city-county’s harm reduction program focuses on reducing overdose deaths and preventing disease transmission, Finke said.
“We will continue to engage with and educate policy makers to ensure that federal and state policy evolves consistent(ly) alongside the growing evidence base supporting effective substance use prevention and harm reduction strategies.”
Opioid overdoses have dramatically declined since 2023, but overdose deaths involving stimulants have increased. People who smoke stimulants, like methamphetamine and cocaine, are at a growing risk for overdose, said Giavana Margo, Wisconsin program manager for Vital Strategies, a national nonprofit working to reduce overdose deaths.
“There’s a lot to be celebrated, and we’re still losing way too many lives to overdose,” Margo said.
A Public Health Madison and Dane County office is shown, May 22, 2026, in Madison, Wis. Staffers previously distributed pipes and other supplies to reduce health risks associated with smoking drugs, but they were told to stop doing so in March 2026. (Addie Costello / Wisconsin Watch)
Wisconsin’s paraphernalia laws only exempt smoking supplies associated with tobacco consumption.
But Wisconsinites can still buy pipes typically used to smoke illegal drugs, several advocates and people using drugs told Wisconsin Watch. Gas stations, local shops and online sellers advertise the glassware as tobacco products, decorations or household items.
Standing outside the department’s East Madison location in late-April a woman who identified herself as Ashley said she received pipes from the office for years. Without the free pipes, people will buy them at nearby stores for around $8 or “improvise” makeshift supplies, the 39-year-old said.
She visited public health for pipes whenever one broke, usually about twice a month. Staff asked whether she had enough fentanyl test strips and wanted to help her “stay as safe as possible,” she said. She can still go to the office to get things like condoms, bandages, injection supplies and tampons.
“It helps when you’re homeless like I am,” she said.
Most people who received harm reduction supplies from health officials in 2024 left with fentanyl test strips and overdose reversal medication, a survey of more than 250 program participants shows. Respondents reported feeling safer and no longer needing to steal smoking supplies after the visits.
Still, a quarter of respondents said they weren’t sure or would likely stop visiting the offices if smoking supplies vanished.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story included captions that misidentified the source of screenshots from a harm reduction pamphlet. The pamphlet was produced in response to a public records request submitted to Public Health Madison and Dane County.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
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